The course aims to introduce the key assumptions of the international relations theory as a part of social science and as an analytic tool, focusing on the problems of war and peace, foreign policy decision-making, etc. The course combines historic approach and analysis of the modern political problems. The historic part shows the evolution of the international relations theory from being a part of political philosophy to its emergence as a special branch of political science, which is essential to understand the key ideas of the IR science. The lectures also include broad outline of the modern concepts and debates in the context of the contemporary political problems, such as rise of China and other emerging powers, threat of terrorism, US-Russia confrontation, etc.
The lectures of the two outstanding Russian scholars and political analysts – Timofey Bordachev and Dmitry Suslov - cover such fields as the problems of international security and conflict resolution, international economic relations, foreign policy decision-making, global governance, the role of power in the IR.
Do you have technical problems? Write to us: coursera@hse.ru

MK

I have learnt a lot of things in this course related to the subject. The teacher and the class were very helpful.

ZI

May 07, 2019

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

i is my first experience to do online course but i find it really amazing.

À partir de la leçon

The beginning: the World Wars and genesis of the IR science

Since the very beginning the development of political thought was hugely stimulated by wars. In the first half of the XX century the question of war and peace became critical for survival of our civilisation. The module introduces to the great debates between the two grand paradigms during the World Wars and explains how the first scientific theories emerged from these debates.

Enseigné par

Timofei Bordachev

Associate professor

Dmitrii Suslov

Senior Lecturer

Transcription

Hello, and welcome back to our conversations about the theory of international relations. However, it was better to say philosophy of international relations because as a science, as an academic discipline, IR theory did not emerge until the beginning of the 20th century. Before that, as we know, we learn the basics, the basic ideas, the basic generalized concepts of how people have been thinking about the international relations, the relations between the states and the role of the states and role of the individuals. We learn about this from the works of philosophers, more than academicians in the contemporary science of this work. But today our lecture is going to be devoted to the new episode new age in the development of our science. After the First World War, the IR theory becomes a genuine academic discipline, as we know it now, as we study it in universities, and as we will study it during our conversations. So our today's lecture is about the beginnings, the two world wars which have shaken the world in the first part of the 20th century and the genesis of IR theory. From our previous conversations, we already know that war has been always a driver of IR science. There isn't this rather simple, the main question of our discipline, but is a matter of fact a main question for everybody of us is a good question of war and peace, is a question of survival. The question of survival of individual and the question of survival state and society. So as a science seeking out to find the fundamental patterns of conflicts, the IR theory, IR science often sparkles during the great wars. We know that the first of these great wars, was a Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece. And to this war, we must be grateful because we received a great work of Thucydides' History of Peloponnesian War. And from the history of Peloponnesian War, we learned the first generalized concepts of the classical realist theory. The other great war, 30-Years War, which has been taking place in Europe in the first part of the 17th century and was one of the most brutal conflicts of the human history, gave us new concepts, the concepts of Thomas Hobbes, the concept of Hugo Grotius, the very birth of the liberalist and liberal approach to the philosophy of international relations as we know it now. And we must be also grateful to this tragic episode in human history because of the creation of Peace of Westphalia, and three principles of the Westphalian peace, which still govern the international relations, noninterference into internal affairs, sovereign equality of the states, and absence of the dominance in international relations. The other great wars, the Napoleonic wars, which have been taking place in Europe after the French Revolution and until 1815, gave us the third great wars, Napoleonic wars, which had been taking place in Europe in the end of the 18th century, beginning of the 19th century, gave us the works of Alexis de Tocqueville and diplomacy of Klemens von Metternich, the great thinkers of the 19th century. And last but not least, the Great War of 1914, 1918 hugely accelerated further development of IR concepts and in many respects driven creation of IR as a science. What were the origins of that great war, which actually brought to the battlefields millions of people from everywhere in Europe and from many other countries in the world, like United States, Latin American countries, Japan, people from Australia, people from Africa, everybody was fighting. There were two opposite camps, the group or the Holy Alliance with the United Kingdom, France, Russia, later joined by Italy, Japan and the United States, and the alliance of Germany and Austria, Hungary, later joined by Bulgaria and Turkey. Origins of the First World War were very different. The strategic free body of the great nations, the long contradictions between the major European countries. But, however, not only the head of the German state emperor, but also every German starting from the nobility and the generals and ending it was a very ordinary people on the ground, believed that the neighbors don't give them enough respect. People in Germany also believed that during the colonial distribution of the territories in the world, Germany did not receive enough that old countries like Britain especially, but also France, but also Russia, but also America received too much and Germany received nothing. And in order to change this unfair situation, Germany wanted to be stronger in terms of military and in terms of economy. But the United Kingdom, a hegemonic power of that time, and Germany, a rapid riser, found themselves in the perfect Thucydides' trap. During our first conversation, we learned about Thucydides, and we learnt what is Thucydides' trap. And we know that the reasons for war according to the Thucydides is that one nation is afraid or the other nation measures to increase its military capacity or economical political capacities because we never know the intentions. We always tend to believe that if our neighbor becomes stronger, he does it because it wants to take something from us, and that's what was the logic of the United Kingdom. They saw Germany rising, and they became more and more afraid and started themselves to prepare for war. What were the consequences of the Great War? In terms of humanity, the consequences of the Great War were truly catastrophic. First of all, almost 8 million people died. Only military personnel and 7 more million were permanently disabled among the military personnel. Germany, for example, who actually started the war by declaring it on the first of August to Russia, and then to France, Germany lost more than 15 percent of active male population, 15 percent. Every eighth German man was killed during the war or died by any reason. While France, another hugely suffered nation lost about 10.5 percent of population. In every French family after the Arab of the Great War lost one member, and in every little French town or village, if you go there, you will see the monument to those who fought and died during the Great War. France and Germany were exhausted. Three European empires, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire, collapsed as a result of the war. Dissolution of the Russian Empire caused a three-year-long civil war, which also took from 5-10 million lives and then terrible dictatorship of the communist, who also killed about several million of their compatriots. Results of the Great War, in many respects, suppressed even the catastrophic of the 30-Years War. One became a strong driver for the farther development of international relations, history and, of course, international relations theory. And the most important consequence was that Europe has forever lost its central role in world affairs. But the experience of First World War gave a lot to the academic knowledge, of the academic understanding of the rules of the game of how nations interacted between them. The First World War challenged some assumptions or that IR thinking of that term. We know that one of the most popular books and concepts of times before the Great War, ''The Great Illusion'' of a prominent thinker Norman Angel argued that stronger economic links may weaken aggressive intentions of nations. For instance, as we know, trade between the United Kingdom and Germany in 1913 was biggest in the world. According to Angel and other liberal thinkers, such strong interdependence granted peace between the two nations, but it did not work out. The Great War showed that economic interdependence cannot stop the states from beginning of war. In economic sense, Europe was critical interdependent, though it did not stop European powers from military actions because they wanted to fight for their pride. Moreover, paradoxically, economic interdependence even triggered the beginning of the conflict. Counting on strong economic ties with the United Kingdom, German generals believed that the United Kingdom will actually not to join France in fighting Germany because it might be unprofitable for Brits. However, the behavior of Britain was completely different. Therefore, according to liberals, to avoid network conflict, it is necessary to create certain political conditions, which allow to weaken political tensions just like at work in domestic level within democratic institutions and procedures. These considerations after the First World War caused the rise of liberal idealism in the 1920s, 1930s. And the new science emerged originally as the liberal science and on the basis of the liberal concepts of individual freedom, economic interdependence but with ending something, the ending of institutions and special rules of the game, special understanding and agreement between the states. So, consequently, the field of the new science was quite broad and strongly connected with moral and political philosophy. It was a task to ship its all subject and develop special methods for the IR studies. Last but not least, citation from Alfred Zimmern, first Professor of International Relations in University College of Wales. His definition of the study of international relations was the following. He wrote, ''The study of international relations extends from the natural science to one end to moral philosophy... at other. These discipline is a bundle of subjects... viewed from a common angle.'' So let us look what are the bundle of the sentence.